how well do you guys inspect guns before you buy?

[LPMan59]

If you are buying mail-order, and send something back because of a cosmetic issue, I've wondered if the guitar you ship back gets labeled as a "blem/2nd" or if it just goes out to some other buyer as "new."

I think the place that the analogy between guns and Gibsons fails is that you can have a blem Gibson that otherwise is "the one." The feel and sound of a guitar, to me, are more important than minor blems. I'd rather have one that is "it," but has a minor blem than one that is cosmetically perfect but doesn't have the sound or feel. You risk sending back a guitar that you love to play and which sounds great, and getting a replacement which is cosmetically perfect, but feels or sounds dead.

Of course, I've had MANY Strats of all vintages, several Les Pauls of various vintages, and I always end up coming back to my well-worn SG. No matter how perfect the others were cosmetically, they just didn't speak to me.

BTW - did you ever try the LP Faded DC Special? It's a double-cutaway slab LP, slim-taper neck, w/2 P90s. They were around $600 new when they came out. They rocked.

at MF, they don't. I received rejected products sold to me at full price.

I know the analogy is not spot on, but my point is that I dont understand why people pay a bunch of cash for something they consider to be imperfect and then complain about it rather than dealing with the vendor, dealer, etc?

A lot of these guys say "i didnt see it until I got home, but now i'm completely disappointed. I spent 37 years saving for it and now my dream is ruined. i can't believe ______'s QC is sooooo bad!!"

1) did you contact the dealer? no.
2) did you contact the manufacturer? no.
3) did you try to use this issue as a haggling point? no.
4) did you get butthurt and whine on the interwebz? absolutely.

and what really kills me, are the guys who have such strong feelings, but buy a second rifle, gun, whatever from the company they have no faith in.

 

[boozoo]

As a C&R collector, a lot of times I fall in love with what it could be and not what it is. The rose colored glasses don't come off until I get it home and start detail-cleaning it... then I think, "oops, no wonder it was cheap".

But now that I've built the collection up to a point where if a new one comes in and old one's gotta go, I'm getting much more selective which means I look for any and every potential issue I can and then decide if I can find one better somewhere else. It's REALLY hard for me to say no one that I've been looking for, but I have to now!

 

[bstewrat3]

I have only been picky with a couple guns and they were both old Mauser's that I was going to invest considerable amounts of money in to have customized and I did not want to get home only to find rust below the woodline so I removed them from the stocks before buying. Went through 16 to get 2.

 

[LuckyGunner]

It depends on the firearm. I always inspect the firearm very closely, but I typically don't disassemble any of the small parts.

I am very particular and have no issue with not accepting a firearm that is not up to snuff. I'm very particular about military surplus rifles actually. There are enough of them out and no good way to return them. I try to get the best one I can so I'll have a lifetime of use out of them.

__________________
45 acp ammo

 

[Sticky]

I do a full function check and field strip. Then a range test as soon as possible.

 

[Walter Zoomie]

Field strip and inspect all parts. Function check. Ergonomics check. Practice with the sights. Dry fire a few times to get a feel for the trigger. If I like it, I'll buy it.

 

[GUNFIGHTER01]

I thought i did a good inspection on guns I bought, but then i bought a kimber 1911 and i did my normal inspection and seemed like everything was in good working order. Till i got it home and cleaned it. Thats when i notice some kind of issue with the slide and frame not working together right. So I'm gonna have to send it to kimber and let them deal with it! Lets just say i learn'd a good lesson on doing a propper inspection on a firearm.

 

[erik7941]

If I buy from a gun shop, I check out all that I can in the shop; I look at the outside of the slide, barrel, grips, sights, trigger, trigger guard, and mag(s), then I usually ask to have them take it apart so I can look at the entire barrel, mag well, springs, frame, etc. If there are any blemishes, knicks, dings, or scratches that "I can live with" I'll try to get the price dropped because the gun is not 100% IMO. If it's something I can't live with, I make sure to let the gun shop employee know and tell him that's why I'm not buying the gun. Then I do a range test as soon as I can. If I buy something not from a gun shop, I inspect as much as I can, on the spot, before I decide to buy, then do a range test asap

 

[trigger643]

Depends on the gun. Usually a field stripping will tell me what I need to know. But on a C&R like a Luger or WWI 1911, a thorough detailed strip is in order. Often Sellers won't allow me to do this and I've learned to walk away, as a replaced firing pin in a luger can be a $1,000 detraction or a replaced mainspring housing on a 1914 springfield 1911 can be a $400.00 hit